Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Nāhiku Rubber Company

Nāhiku comes from “Na Ehiku” meaning “the Seven” and it relates to the seven stars of the constellation Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters – suggesting seven lands.  This area is just outside of Hāna.

Nāhiku is a fertile ahupuaʻa that was cleared and terraced with irrigated taro cultivation by the Hawaiians. To the east of Nāhiku out to Hamoa, the land slopes gently down to the ocean. No large gulches or streams run through the ahupua’a, although there is plenty of rain.

Along the shore there was a hala forest that extended from ʻUlaʻino to Hāna. The forests above Nāhiku were traditionally forested with native trees such as koa, ʻōhiʻa lehua and sandalwood. Many plants that were used for native medicine also grew there.

 In modern times, when Hāna was without a road, and the coastal steamer arrived on a weekly schedule, Hāna-bound travelers unwilling to wait for the boat drove their car to the road’s end at Kailua, rode horseback to Kaumahina ridge, then walked down the switchback into Honomanu Valley. Friends carried them on flatbed taro trucks across the Keʻanae peninsula to Wailua cove. (Wenkam, NPS)

By outrigger canoe it was a short ride beyond Wailua to Nāhiku landing where they could borrow a car for the rest of the involved trip to Hāna. Sometimes the itinerary could be completed in a day. Bad weather could make it last a week.  (Wenkam, NPS)

Today, Nāhiku is located off Hāna Highway (360) on Nāhiku Road between Wailua and Hāna.  Just past the 25-mile marker, you head makai on Nāhiku Road about three miles down to the bay. Nearby is the Pua’a Ka’a State Wayside for picnicking, as well as the Kopilula and Waikani Falls. The lower Hanawi Falls is located in Nāhiku.

Nāhiku is the site of an attempt to create a rubber plantation on Maui. The need for automobile tires made rubber a valuable product in the late-1800s.  In 1898, Mr. Hugh Howell, of Nāhiku, obtained some seeds of the Manihot glaziovii (Brazilian) and planted them in Nāhiku. These seem to be the first trees of any commercial species that have been tried.

After some initial experimentation in producing rubber, the company was not started until it was definitely ascertained that rubber trees of the best quality would grow at Nāhiku, and the yield of rubber from these trees was sufficient to make it a profitable investment. A number of trees of the Ceara variety have been growing at Nāhiku for six years, and when these were tapped it was found that the rubber obtained was equal to the best.  (Thrum)

The first Hawai’i rubber company incorporated in 1905 and on February 4, 1907, the Nāhiku Rubber Plantation was officially established. It was the first rubber plantation on American soil.

There are many thousands of acres of land on the Islands where it is rainy and not too windy, where rubber will thrive, and if this first rubber company proves a success, it is hoped that many other rubber companies will be started.

As this is the first rubber plantation ever started on American soil the officials of the Department of Agriculture at Washington arc greatly interested in its success, and are doing everything they can to help it along. (Thrum, 1905)

According to ‘Rubber World’ 7 (1913,) rubber was steadily becoming an important Hawaiian product.  On the island of Maui many trees have been planted and these are tapped in large numbers.  Steady efforts are being made to improve the methods of preparation in order to increase the marketable value: 35,000-trees were tapped during 1912, and altogether some 8,000-pounds of rubber were produced, most of which was exported.  For 1913, an output of 20,000-pounds is anticipated.  (Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 1913)

Attention has been directed to an indigenous rubber tree (Euphorbia lorifolia) which grows in several localities; one place in particular on the Island of Hawaiʻi has 6,000-trees averaging 75-trees to the acre, whose product is 14-17 per cent of rubber and 60 per cent resin (chicle.)  It is reported that the latex contains 42 per cent of solid material and that one man can collect 16-30 pounds of crude product per day.  (Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 1913)

Others followed the Nāhiku Rubber Company, each were in the area around Nāhiku:
Company………………Founded…Acres
Nāhiku Rubber Co……..1905…….480
Hawaii-American Co…..1903…… 245
Koʻolau Rubber Co…….1906……..275
Nāhiku Sugar Co……….1906……..250
Pacific Development…1907……..250
(Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 1913)

Cultivation grew with companies and individuals controlling nearly 5,600-acres of land on Maui, Kauai, Oahu and the Big Island.

At the height of the rubber production, Nāhiku had a Chinese grocery and post office, a plantation general store; Protestant, Mormon and Catholic churches and a schoolhouse attended by twenty children. One visitor to the area in 1910 said, “Every place has its peculiarities and characteristics; so with Nāhiku. It is rubber, first, last and all the time there.”

However, the quality and quantity of rubber produced by these plantations, despite the hard work of the laborers (who were paid 50 cents for a ten-hour day with a 30-minute lunch break) was not good enough to make a substantial profit for the investors. The companies began to phase out production as early as 1912. The oldest of the rubber companies, the Nāhiku Rubber Plantation, closed on January 20, 1915.

After the rubber plantations closed, some residents moved out of Nāhiku. Those who stayed resumed cultivating bananas and taro for food. Some tried growing bananas as a cash crop and when this didn’t work began growing roselle for jelly. Eventually these attempts also failed. The exodus out of Nāhiku to the “outside” continued.

 According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, in 1930 there were only 182 people living in Nāhiku. Of them, 101 were Hawaiian. By 1941 only fifteen families and two non-Hawaiian families lived there, clustered around a one-room school and the churches.

In December, 1942, Territorial Governor Ingram Stainback tried to help the World War II effort by sending 40 prisoners from Oʻahu Prison to the Keanae Prison Camp (now the YMCA camp) to revive the old Nāhiku rubber plantation. The plan was to produce 20,000 to 50,000 pounds of crude rubber annually. The plan did not work.  Now, rubber trees left over from that time line the roads of Nāhiku.

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Sun Mei

Most of the attention is placed on his famous brother, however several historians feel that without the fostering and support, the younger brother would not have succeeded in his endeavor.

The older brother, born in 1854, was named Sun Dezhang, he was also known as Sun Ahmi and Sun Mei (we’ll use the latter for the rest of the story.)

The younger brother, born in 1866, was known as Tai Cheong, Tai Chu, Sun Wen and Sun Deming (we’ll use the Cantonese pronunciation of the name he was given at baptism (in 1884) – pronounced Yat-sen.)

Gold was discovered in 1849 in western American state of California. The Chinese called USA the “Flowery Flag Country.” Thousands of Chinese immigrants had been flocking into California. By 1855, there were 40,000-Chinese or one-sixth of state’s population in the California.

The Sun’s two uncles, Sun Xue-cheng and Sun Guancheng, had gone earlier to seek their fortune in the California goldfields. Xuecheng died at sea near Shanghai in 1864 and Guancheng died in 1867 at 39 in California.  (Zanella)

Despite their untimely deaths, the attraction of a better life was kept alive for the Sun brothers by their uncles’ mothers who told stories of their sons while living in the Sun household.

At 17, following his father’s urging, Sun Mei went off to Hawaiʻi – to escape from the local poverty and poor agrarian conditions of his home.  Another of his uncles had a business in Honolulu and he took Sun Mei back to Hawaiʻi with him in 1871.  (Zanella)

Sun Mei began a career as a hired vegetable gardener. Before the end of the year, he went into business for himself by leasing land at ʻEwa, Oʻahu. He cleared the land and planted rice. He began to prosper after a short period of time and opened a store on Nuʻuanu Street in Chinatown.

Then, he returned to China to find a bride. While there, he recruited over a hundred men to work in Hawaiʻi’s new sugar plantations (at the time, the growing sugar plantations needed field labor.)

He moved to Maui and went from labor broker to shop owner, in 1881 opened a grocery store in Kahului (“De Chong Long” (named after his son,)  dealt in real estate, then established a ranch in Kamaole, where he was as skilled at riding and roping as any man on the mountain.  (Maui Magazine)

Some called him the “Maui King” and the “King of Kula,” partly for his larger-than-life persona and partly for the size of his cattle ranch – it spread all the way from Polipoli Forest to the shoreline at Kihei.  (Wood)

Sun Mei was one of the wealthiest Chinese in Hawaiʻi during his time (at the turn of the century.)  He had owned almost 100-properties on Oʻahu and Maui.

He arranged for his younger brother to join him; in 1879, then 13 years of age, Yat-sen journeyed to Hawaiʻi to join his older brother.  The younger Sun entered ʻIolani at age 14.  (ʻIolani)

In Sun Yat-Sen’s four years in Hawaiʻi (1879-1883), he is said to have attended three Christian educational institutions: ʻIolani College, St. Louis College and Oʻahu College (Punahou School.)

Shortly after, Yat-sen left Hawaiʻi and returned to China to initiate his revolutionary activities in earnest.  The funding of the First Canton Uprising mainly came from the Chinese in Hawaiʻi, including his brother (that uprising effort failed.)

On another visit to Hawaiʻi (in 1903,) Sun reorganized the Hsing Chung Hui into Chung Hua Ke Min Jun (The Chinese Revolutionary Army) in Hilo.  After reorganization, the group spread all over China and rallied all the revolutionists under its wings.

From 1894 to 1911, Yat-sen traveled around the globe advocating revolution and soliciting funds for the cause. At first, he concentrated on China, but his continued need for money forced him elsewhere. Southeast Asia, Japan, Hawaii, Canada, the United States, and Europe all became familiar during his endless quest.  (Damon)

Through the years, Sun Mei eventually sold all of his properties and businesses to support his brother’s revolution.    Sun Mei sold his ranch in 1908; now the land belongs to the Haleakala Ranch Company, which uses the land to breed cattle.

Sun Mei returned to his ancestral village. Later he built a house and lived in Kowloon across from Hong Kong.  His house became a place where the revolutionists met.  Sun Mei had given his whole fortune to his younger brother’s revolution.

Eventually (in 1911,) Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Qing Government and established the Republic of China.  In 1912, Sun Yat-sen was elected the first President of the Republic of China.

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Māʻalaea

The name Māʻalaea may be a contraction of Maka-‘alaea, which means “ocherous earth beginning,” a reference to ‘alaea, a red clay commonly used for coloring sea salt.  Other place names found on old maps include Kalae‘ia, Palalau and Kanaio.    (Engledow)

Māʻalaea is part of the land division called Waikapū, which originates in one of four valleys created by streams known as Nā Wai Eha – The Four Waters. Those famous streams carved the steep ridges and gullies of four valleys of the West Maui mountains – Waikapū, ‘Īao, Waiehu and Waiheʻe.

The Waikapū district covers approximately half of the isthmus known as Kama‘oma‘o, reaching the south shore and including the shoreline from near Māʻalaea to Kïhei Püko‘a.  (Engledow)

After Kamehameha conquered Maui in 1795, the district of Waikapū was given to Ke‘eaumoku, one of the “four Kona Uncles” who had been his main supporters.

When Ke‘eaumoku died in 1804 it went to his son, Kahekili Ke‘eaumoku, and on his death in 1824 to Kuakini, then to Leleiōhoku in 1844. During the Great Māhele of 1848, some Land Commission Awards (LCA) were granted in Kamaʻalaea.

“On the south side of western Maui the flat coastal plain all the way from Kihei and Māʻalaea to Honokahua, in old Hawaiian times, must have supported many fishing settlements and isolated fishermen’s houses, where sweet potatoes were grown in the sandy soil or red lepo near the shore.”

“For fishing, this coast is the most favorable on Maui, and although a considerable amount of taro was grown, I think it reasonable to suppose that the large fishing population which presumably inhabited this leeward coast ate more sweet potatoes than taro with their fish.” (Handy)

One product of the area was salt. In an entry dated February 1, 1817, an early voyager describes arriving at “Mackerey (Māʻalaea) Bay; here we lay until the 6th, and took on board a great quantity of hogs, salt, and vegetables.”

“This bay is very deep and wide and nearly divides the island, there being but a narrow neck of land and very low, keeping the two parts of the island together.”

“There is good anchorage; and the only danger arises from the trade winds, which blows so strong at times as to drive ships out of the bay with two anchors down; it lies NE and SW and is well sheltered from every other wind.”

“The neck of land is so low, and the land so high on each side, that the NE trade comes through like a hurricane. On this neck of land are their principal salt-pans, where they make a most excellent salt.”  (Engledow)

During the California Gold Rush, between 1848 and 1850, Māʻalaea Bay functioned as a major port for transporting Hawaiian-grown goods, such as Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, pumpkins, oranges, coffee and molasses. Such goods were then shipped to San Francisco and elsewhere along the west coast of the continent.  (Engledow)

Much of the region of Waikapū was converted for agriculture during the mid-1800s, with sugar cane as the primary crop. Eventually the entire ahupuaʻa was sold to Henry Cornwell in 1885. Cornwell, along with his brother-in-law James Louzada, of Waimea, Hawaiʻi, began the Waikapū Plantation. The plantation fell under the control of the Wailuku Sugar Company in 1894.  (Engledow)

Two traditional sayings, or ‘ōlelo no‘eau, referred to this area, and both have to do with its famous winds. “Ka makani kokololio o Waikapū, The gusty wind of Waikapū,” is referred to in the song “Inikinikimālie” by James Kahale.

Another is “Pā kamakani o ka Moaʻe, hele ka lepo o Kaho‘olawe i Māʻalaea, When the Moa‘e wind blows, the dust of Kaho‘olawe goes toward Māʻalaea.” (Pukui)

The area of Kapoli Spring, at the western end of Māʻalaea, is traditionally said to be the site where the high chiefs landed by canoe and been a landing point for centuries.  Two large boulders are nearby; one is known as Pōhaku O Maʻalaea, situated along Kapoli Spring.

One stone is recorded as a pōhaku piko, while the other stone, known as the “Kings Table,” was used for either food preparation or adze grinding. Both stones have been moved from their original locations.

Stories tell of Kihapiʻilani landing here on his return to Maui, after he had fled Lānaʻi following a fight with his brother Lonoapiʻilani. Kihapiʻilani and his wife supposedly met people with bundles “going down makai to the shore to trade some food” at “Kamāaʻalaea,” another name for Māʻalaea.

In 1736, Kapoli in Māʻalaea was the landing place to take the remains of Kekaulike, the ruling chief of Maui, by land to Wailuku in the ʻĪao Valley.  “Then, fearing the arrival of Alapaʻi bent on war, the chiefs cut the flesh from the bones of Kekaulike in order to lighten the load in carrying the body to ʻĪao [for burial].”  (Kamakau)

In the early-1790s, Captain George Vancouver visited Maui and brought the first cattle and root vegetables to the island.  A memorial, with Canadian totem poles, to Vancouver was erected by Canadian J Gordon Gibson near the initial landing site, across the bay at Kihei.

The main mauka/makai trail followed Kealaloloa Ridge.  Because of the steep terrain in the area, there was no coastal trail between Olowalu and Māʻalaea, so “from ‘Olowalu travelers were ferried by canoe to Māʻalaea, thence to Makena”.  (Rechtman)

One of the places they passed along that route was a promontory that has a modern name of McGregor Point.  Here, the wind was so strong at times, that it would shred the sails of vessels trying to traverse the coastline by sea (as noted in Nūpepa Kūʻokoʻa, 1868:)

Ke holo nei ka moku a kūpono i Ukumehame, nānā aku i ka makani wili ko‘okai i ka moana, kahea mai ‘ia ke Kāpena i nā sela a pū‘ā i nā pe‘a, e hao mai ana ka makani pau nā pe‘a i ka nahaehae.

(The ship sailed on until reaching just outside of Ukumehame, watching the strong whirling winds whipping the seas, the captain called out to the sailors to furl the sails, the wind was gusting and the sails were torn.) (Rechtman)

McGregor ordered the anchor dropped for the night.  With the light of the morning, McGregor awoke to find that he had discovered an excellent cove with a protecting point.  The point, just over a mile southwest of Māʻalaea Bay, continues to bear his name.

In 1877, Wilder Steamship Company initiated passenger and freight service between the Hawaiian Islands.  At that time, there were few navigational aids, so the steamship company was forced to erect lighted beacons for the safety of its own vessels.

One of these private aids was placed at Māʻalaea Bay in the 1880s and was an ordinary lantern, fitted with red glass and displayed from a post.  In 1903, land was acquired on McGregor Point and a light was placed on the point to replace the one at Māʻalaea.  This was later upgraded in 1915.

The area is known for another famous landing.  On February 18, 1881, The “Beta” under the command of Captain Christian L’Orange, an early plantation owner who, under a commissioned from King Kalākaua, landed 600-Scandinavian immigrants who had signed on to work in the booming sugar plantations.

Sometime before 1825, a hand-built trail for horseback and foot travel connected Wailuku and Lāhainā (the alignment is referred to as the Lāhainā Pali Trail;) it served as the most direct route across the steep southern slopes of West Maui Mountain.

Laura Fish Judd, in 1841, described it as, “A new road had been made around the foot of the mountain, the crookedest, rockiest, ever traveled by mortals. Our party consisted of five adults and five children. We had but two horses. One of these was in a decline on starting; it gave out in a few miles.”

Around 1900, the Lāhainā Pali Trail fell out of use when prison laborers built a one-way dirt road along the base of the pali. In 1911, a three-ton truck was the first vehicle to negotiate this road, having a difficult time making some of the sharp, narrow turns.

Over the years, the road was widened and straightened until 1951, when the modern Honoapiʻilani Highway cut out many of the 115-hairpin curves in the old pali road and a tunnel cleared the way through a portion of the route.

This was the first tunnel ever constructed on a public highway in Hawaiʻi – built on the Olowalu-Pali section of the Lāhainā-Wailuku Road (now Honoapiʻilani Highway,) completed on October 10, 1951. The tunnel is 286-feet long, 32-feet wide, and more than 22 feet high.  (Schmidt)

Today, a remnant of the old trail is a recreational hike – five-miles long (from Māʻalaea to Ukumehame (the ahupuaʻa adjoining Waikapū)) and climbs to over 1,600-feet above sea level.

Māʻalaea was the site of Maui’s first commercial airport. “In late 1929, Interisland Airways (which later became Hawaiian Airlines,) Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar, and the Kahului Railroad cooperated in building a paved airstrip near Māʻalaea,” but the airport closed in 1938-39. It was troubled by high winds, was too close to the West Maui Mountains and was inadequate for the larger airplanes that had come into use.   (Engledow)

In May 1944, training for the assault on Saipan were held at Māʻalaea Bay and Kaho‘olawe.   The Fourth and Fifth Marine Divisions also used the area for joint ship-to-shore training and amphibious landing practice before the 1945 battle of Iwo Jima.  The Māʻalaea Bay area furnished an antitank moving-target range, a close-combat range, and a 20-point rifle range. The beach at Māʻalaea Bay was fortified with pillboxes and emplacements modeled after the Tarawa Beach.

Today, Māʻalaea remains as a boat landing area.  The present Small Boat Harbor facilities were first developed by the Territory in 1952 and improved in 1955 and 1959.  The harbor, under the control of DLNR-DOBOR, has approximately 30-berths, 61-moorings, boat ramp, a harbor office, a dry dock, a restaurant and a boat club.

Within the Harbor is the Māʻalaea Ebisu Kotohira Jinsha (completed in 1999, it is a replica of the original shrine built in 1914.)  Ebisu is one of the seven lucky deities and the guardian god of fisherman and merchants; kotohira means ‘fishermen’; and jinsha means ‘shrine.’ This traditional Shinto fishing shrine on the shore of Māʻalaea Small Boat Harbor was originally located on the site of the Maui Ocean Center.

McGregor Point Lookout is a popular vantage point for seeing humpback whales from land. From this vantage point you have a sweeping view of the ocean.  Humpback whales arrive in Hawaiʻi over a six-month period, with the best viewing months from mid-December through mid-April.

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Lāhainā Jodo Mission

Jodo Buddhism was founded by Saint Honen in 1175. The word Jodo, from which the name of the sect was derived, means “Pure Land,” is the name given to the Western Paradise or the realm of Amida Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Life and Light.

Today, these teachings have spread to all corners of the world. It was introduced to Hawaiʻi in 1894 and continues to grow here.

Japanese immigration to Hawaiʻi that began in 1868 marked the beginnings of large-scale settlement and, with it, the establishment of a strong religious base of Buddhism.

The Lāhainā Jodo Mission was founded in 1912 with the support of many Japanese immigrants then working in the nearby sugar and pineapple plantations.

After the original temple was destroyed in a fire in 1968, the members of the Mission decided to build a Japanese style Buddhist temple on the beachfront property that provided an idyllic setting.

The Great Buddha and the Temple Bell were completed in June 1968 to commemorate the Centennial Anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants to arrive in Hawaiʻi

In 1970, the main Temple and Pagoda were built with the generous and wholehearted support of the members of the Mission as well as the general public. Masao Omori, a Japanese philanthropist, donated the expertise of Japanese craftsmen that was necessary for the construction of the buildings and the casting of the Buddha.

The present temple stands on the exact spot of the former temple building. The new structure was built by traditional Japanese carpenters with the help of our members and friends. Lāhainā Jodo Mission is a unique Buddhist temple with its architectural structure that blends Japanese and Western styles.

One of the most interesting features is the solid copper shingles that cover the rooftops of both the Temple and the Pagoda. All the shingles were individually hand-made and are interlocked on all four sides, forming a solid copper sheeting. Also, the traditional construction of the wooden beams allows the pieces to interlock without the use of nails.

Inside the temple, five Buddhist paintings adorn the walls. These were painted in 1974 by the renowned Japanese artist Iwasaki Hajin. In later years, Mr. Iwasaki painted beautiful floral ceiling paintings and produced two paintings depicting the dream of Saint Honen (1133-1212) meeting the Chinese Pure Land Master Shantao (613-681).

The 12-feet tall copper and bronze statue of Amida Buddha is the largest of its kind outside Japan. It was cast in Kyoto, Japan, from 1967 to 1968, and weighs approximately three and a half tons. The Great Buddha was completed in June 1968, as a commemorative project for the early Japanese immigrants.

Made of bronze, on one side of the temple bell (the ocean side) are the words Imin Hyakunen no Kane (The Centennial Memorial Bell for the First Japanese Immigrants to Hawaii) cast in Chinese characters. On the other side are the characters Namu Amida Butsu, which means “Save me, oh, Amida Buddha.”

The Pagoda, or Temple Tower, is approximately 90-feet high at its tallest point. The covering of the roof is made of pure copper. The first floor of the pagoda contains niches to hold the urns of deceased members.

At Lāhainā Jodo Mission, the temple bell is rung eleven times each evening at 8 o’clock.

The first three rings signify the following:
• I go to the Buddha for guidance
• I go to the Dharma (the teaching of the Buddha) for guidance
• I go to the Sangha (Brotherhood) for guidance

The next eight rings represent the Eight-Fold Pathway to Righteousness:
• Right Understanding
• Right Purpose
• Right Speech
• Right Conduct
• Right Livelihood
• Right Endeavor
• Right Thought
• Right Meditation

According to Buddhist legend, when Sakyamuni Buddha entered Nirvana, his body was cremated at Kusinara. Seven of the neighboring rulers, under the leadership of King Ajatasattu, demanded the ashes be divided among them.

At first, the king refused their demands and a dispute ensued, threatening to end in war. But a wise man named Dona intervened and the crisis passed. The ashes were divided and enshrined in eight great stupas in India.

The ashes of the funeral fire and the earthen jar that contained the remains were given to two other rulers to be likewise honored. Because of the enshrinements, followers came to worship and pay homage to these stupas, also called pagodas, which later became a symbol of the spiritual image of the Buddha.  (Information here is from lahainajodomission-org)

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Kimo Ona-Milliona

James was son of William and Martha (Adams) Campbell, descended from the Scottish Campbell clan, the eighth child in the family of eight boys and four girls (born in Ireland, February 4, 1826.)  His father was a carpenter who operated a furniture and cabinet shop adjacent to the home where he and his wife raised their family.

With limited opportunities on that island, at the age of 13, he stowed away on a schooner for Canada and later wound up on a whaler out of New Bedford and was bound for the Pacific.  He survived a shipwreck in the South Pacific (Tuamotus) on the way.

He and two shipmates immediately were seized by the Islanders and bound to trees to await their fate.  After Campbell fixed the chief’s broken musket, they were freed and accepted as members of the community. A few months later Campbell left the Island by drifting out to a passing schooner that took him to Tahiti, and later (1850) he went to Hawaiʻi.

He settled in Lāhainā, Maui and honed his skill as a carpenter in building and repairing boats and constructing homes.  He boarded with a European named Barla and married Barla’s only child, Hannah. There were no children of this marriage, which ended with the death of young Hannah Barla Campbell in 1858.

He expanded beyond carpentry and ventured into the Islands’ fledgling sugar industry.  In 1860, Campbell, with Henry Turton and James Dunbar, established the Pioneer Mill Company (Dunbar later left;) they not only invested capital in the business, they also worked alongside employees in the field and mill.

When Campbell and Turton were starting the plantation, the small sugar mill consisted of three wooden rollers set upright, with mules providing the power to turn the heavy rollers. The cane juice ran into a series of boiling kettles that originally had been used on whaling ships.

By 1876, the annual production had increased to 1,708-tons of raw sugar and the World’s Fair in Philadelphia awarded Pioneer Mill a prize for its fine quality sugar that year. In 1882, Honolulu Iron Works built an iron three-roller mill for the factory and soon there were six boilers generating steam power to drive the machinery.

Pioneer Mill Company not only survived but thrived and enabled Campbell to build a palatial home in Lāhainā.  Despite his success in sugar, his interests turned to other matters, primarily ranching and real estate and he started to acquire lands in Oʻahu, Maui and the island of Hawaiʻi.

In 1876, he purchased approximately 15,000-acres at Kahuku on the northernmost tip of Oʻahu from HA Widemann and Julius L Richardson. In 1877, he acquired from John Coney 41,000-acres of ranch land at Honouliuli.

In 1877, he sold his interest in Pioneer Mill Company to his partner, Turton; he married Abigail Kuaihelani Maipinepine (age 19) and soon after moved to a home on Emma Street in Honolulu, which Campbell purchased from Archibald S Cleghorn in 1878.  (Now the site of the Pacific Club.)

Princess Kaʻiulani, daughter of the Cleghorns, was born there in 1875. The Campbells’ first daughter, Abigail Wahiikaahuula, later Princess Abigail Kawānanakoa, was born in the same room as Princess Kaʻiulani. (Other children included Alice, Beatrice and Muriel; four other children were born to the couple but died in infancy.)

In 1883 he built the Campbell Block Building at the corner of Merchant and Fort Streets, Honolulu, where he established his office. (This building was headquarters for the Campbell Estate until 1967, when the Estate constructed the modern James Campbell Building at this site to house its offices.)

In 1885, Pioneer Mill Company, cultivating about 600 of its 900 acres of land and producing about 2,000 tons of sugar a year, encountered difficulties and Turton declared bankruptcy.  To protect his mortgage, Campbell, with financial partner Paul Isenberg of Hackfeld and Company, acquired all the stock and Campbell again took on management of the operation.

With major interests on Maui and Oʻahu, Campbell split his time between the Islands.  He was a member of the House of Nobles representing Maui, Molokai and Lānaʻi in the special session of 1887 and the regular session of 1888.

Back on Oʻahu, critics scoffed at the doubtful value of Campbell’s purchase of Honouliuli. But he envisioned supplying the arid area with water and commissioned California well-driller James Ashley to drill a well on his Honouliuli Ranch.  In 1879, Ashley drilled Hawaiʻi’s first artesian well; Campbell’s vision had made it possible for Hawaiʻi’s people to grow sugar cane on the dry lands of the ʻEwa Plain.

In 1889, Campbell leased about 40,000-acres of land for fifty years to BF Dillingham (of Oʻahu Railway and Land Co;) after several assignments and sub-leases, about 7,860-acres of Campbell land ended up with Ewa Planation.

(ʻEwa Plantation was considered one of the most prosperous plantations in Hawaiʻi and in 1931 a new 50-year lease was executed, completing the agreement with Oʻahu Railway and Land Company and beginning an association with Campbell Estate.  The ʻEwa mill closed in the mid-1970s; the mill was demolished in 1985.)

After a lengthy illness, Campbell died on April 21, 1900, in his Emma Street home. On the afternoon of his funeral the banks and most of the large business houses closed.  (In January of 1902, Abigail Campbell married Colonel Sam Parker.)

“We knew him then as a very capable and industrious mechanic at Lahaina. By hard work and sound judgment, twenty years later he had built up a valuable sugar plantation in Lahaina. From that beginning of wealth he became the possessor of more than three millions of property, all of it, to the best of our knowledge, honestly gained without detriment to others.”

“Mr. Campbell was a good citizen, although not a religious man. He was remarkable for sound business judgment, capacity for hard persistent effort, and for great personal courage, qualities very commonly accompanying Scotch descent.”  (The Friend, May 1, 1900)

When Campbell died, the Estate of James Campbell was created as a private trust to administer his assets for the benefit of his heirs (in 2007, the James Campbell Company succeeded the Estate of James Campbell.) The Estate played a pivotal role in Hawaiʻi history, from the growth of sugar plantations to the growing new City of Kapolei.

Over the years, Campbell became known by the Hawaiians as “Kimo Ona-Milliona” (James the Millionaire.)  Campbell himself said that the principle upon which he had accumulated his wealth was in always living on less than he made.  (Lots of information here from Campbell Estate publications.)

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